I’m sitting in my car, AC running (of course because it’s three degrees below the flames of hell outside) and the only place to park is right by a group of laborers grabbing a few minutes of rest in the shade. What am I going to do while I wait 10 minutes for Josh? Let me get out my iPhone and see what is happening with my Facebook peeps . . . ugh, that feels uncomfortable and very “white princess.” These sweaty laborers probably don’t make enough in a year to purchase an iPhone and a data plan and here I am with a cool artificial breeze blowing in my face, lamenting that my electronics aren’t loading fast enough. And they sit watching me, because that’s what people do here.
I have bags of groceries in the car, but nothing I can give them. I don’t think they want a slab of frozen hamburger meat or cans of cat food. If I only had some bottles of water or snacks in my car. Oh great! I just realized that they are having to breathe in my exhaust while I idle here. I’m not only rubbing my excess in their faces, but I’m bathing their lungs in cancer causing fumes. Awesome, Rob.
Living here means always teetering on an uncomfortable edge somewhere between self-preservation and sacrifice. Yes, it’s awesome that I have a housemaid who takes wonderful care of us and does every little bit of laundry in the house. But with it comes guilt that she’s there mopping the floor and I’m here on a very expensive computer. Giving her a job and paying her well means that she can send money home to her family and care for many people, but it doesn’t answer the questions of “why me?” or “Why her?” or “What about everyone else?”
I’ve decided to start keeping drinks and snacks in my car (in a cooler) so when the opportunity arises, I do have something to share. It’s not much, but in a place that treats laborers as less than human, maybe a little kindness will go along way.
Sometimes it’s hard to find the balance — how can we justify spending money on a trip to Italy when there are starving people in the world? Should I be eating steak when I could eat more cheaply on rice and beans and give the extra to charity? I think (I hope) those answers come by listening to God’s promptings. Just after having this conversation with myself and thinking that I needed to keep an insulated container in the car so I could carry food and drinks to hand out (because otherwise the water would be scorching), I walked into a store and spied an insulated bag on clearance for $3. “Yes, do this!” is the answer I heard.
